Finally picked up the pine armoire I mentioned before. This is now the second biggest piece of furniture in the apartment. I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon polishing it up with some Feed-N-Wax. I don't think it made a difference. Maybe I should have cleaned it first with wood cleaner before polishing it. Anyway, next month I'll give it another polish and see if it visibly makes an improvement. In the far, far future I want to sand it down and refinish it.
Now the pine armoire has one outstanding flaw, among other problems. It's not square - it does not stand up straight at all. It drives me nuts that it slants very obviously to the left. Sometime in the future I hope to fix this problem. Other than that I love it. It provides a lot of storage, and the dimensions are perfect for our living room. But I feel it's not worth the $369 we paid for it. IKEA had an armoire for $200, but I went with the pine armoire instead because I want as little IKEA furniture that I can get away with. I just tell myself it's worth the price because it's not IKEA, and it replaced a crappy IKEA dresser that used to be in its place, and it's made out of solid wood, and it looks rustic, and we saved it from becoming firewood. Now I don't want to come across as an IKEA hater. I do love some of their products. I just don't want our place to look like an IKEA showroom.
